Box Turtle Bulletin

Today In History, 1991: First Gay Days at Disney World

25 YEARS AGO. It started as a very modest idea: a time for about 3,000 gays and lesbians in central Florida to enjoy a day at Orlando’s top attraction — and to become more visible. “Twenty years ago, there were hardly any visible portrayals of our community other than the pride parades,” Chris Alexander-Manley, president of Gay Days Inc., told Time in 2010. He was also one of the volunteers who helped organize the first event in 1991. He said that the media tended to show “the drag queens and the extremes, the leather people, but that’s only a small part of the overall community.” To increase their visibility, gay attendees wore red shirts in the park. That visibility caught the attention of anti-gay activists. The Southern Baptist Convention launched a boycott of all things Disney, despite the fact that Disney never sanctioned the event. Disney always instructed their employees to treat the first Saturday of June just like any other Saturday, which put the SBC in an odd position of, I guess, demanding that Disney ban red shirts or something.

Gay Days at Disney World has grown from that modest 3,000 assemblage to an estimated 150,000 participants in recent years. And with that growth the nature of the event has changed somewhat. There are still family events taking place catering to LGBT families, but they occur alongside pool parties, dance raves and other circuit party-style activities of a more specifically adult orientation. But within the confines of the park itself, it’s all about Mickey Mouse and Magic Mountain and getting the kids in line for the spinning teacups. And despite ongoing grumbling from social conservatives — Disney typically issues refunds to families offended by the sight of red shirts — Gay Days continues to appeal to the kids in all of us.

Born On This Day, 1957: Peter Jepson-Young

(d. 1992) The Vancouver, BC doctor was known to millions across Canada simply as Dr. Peter, host of a regular segment on the CBC’s news broadcast called The Dr. Peter Diaries. That platform made Dr. Peter the country’s best-known educator for AIDS and HIV awareness. Dr. Peter’s approach was uniquely personal: he documented, on his own program, his experiences both as a doctor and as a person with AIDS. He began his weekly segment in 1990 after he was unable to continue his medical practice because of his deteriorating health. He brought a sense of humor to his weekly video diaries, and his frank discussion of AIDS helped to break down stereotypes and stigma surrounding the disease. His Diaries continued for more than two years, until a few weeks before he died in November 1992. Shortly before he died, Dr. Peter had also established the Dr. Peter AIDS Foundation to provide care for people with HIV/AIDS.

In 1993, the CBC and HBO jointly produced a 45-minute documentary, The Broadcast Tapes of Dr. Peter, which consisted of excerpts from his video diaries. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Today, all 111 episodes are available on the CBC’s website.

Born On This Day, 1961: Mary Bonauto

55 YEARS AGO. If you’re in a state where you’re allowed to marry, then you have Mary Bonauto to thank. The civil rights attorney, lauded as “our Thurgood Marshal,” has been working with the Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) since 1990, playing key roles in methodically building the legal foundation through a series of court cases which eventually opened the doors, at least part way, to marriage equality for same-sex couples. As Roberta Kaplan told The New York Times in March 2013, “No gay person in this country would be married without Mary Bonauto.”

Bonauto began her work at GLAD by litigating several employment discrimination, custody and free speech cases throughout New England. Seven years later, she was co-counselor for three Vermont couples seeking a marriage license. The goal was full marriage, but at that time it was still difficult to make a legal case. Instead, Baker v. Vermont compelled the Vermont legislature to enact the nation’s first civil union law in 2000. The following year, Bonauto took another crack at marriage as lead counsel for Goodridge v. Department of Public Health. That led to the landmark 2003 decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court which led the Bay State to become the first in the nation in marriage equality. She was also co-counsel in the Connecticut court case which prompted that state legislature to enact a civil union law.

Bonauto next set her sights set on Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act as lead counsel for Gill v. Office of Personnel Management, one of five federal cases which challenged DOMA’s constitutionality. In that case in 2010, a Federal District Court in held that DOMA violated the U.S. Constitution’s Equal Protection clause, and the First Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that decision. The case then went on to the U.S. Supreme Court, but the court chose to hear the appeal for Edith Windsor instead and that case ended up dooming DOMA in June 2013.

Two years later, Bonauto was before the Supreme Court again, this time urging the court to strike down gay marriage bans nationwide as litigant for Obergefell v. Hodges. And what she accomplished for the state of Massachusetts, she also won for gay couples nationwide when the Supreme Court declared that marriage equality bans violated the due process and equal protection clauses of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Today’s Agenda Is Brought To You By…

Today In History, 1977: Miami Voters Rescind Gay Rights Ordinance

The Dade County Commission approved an ordinance in January of 1977 that would outlaw discrimination against gay people in employment, housing and public services (Jan 18). Miami joined about 40 other communities around the nation had similar anti-discrimination laws in effect.

Reaction from local Christian conservatives was swift. Former beauty queen and Florida Orange Juice spokeswoman Anita Bryant learned about the ordinance when it was denounced from the pulpit at Northwest Baptist Church. She sprang into action, creating a group called “Save Our Children” to overturn the ordinance at the ballot box. Fear-mongering about “access to children” would be the group’s main focus. She told one audience, “Some males who would become teachers even want to wear dresses to work and flaunt their homosexuality in front of our children.” To another, she warned,  “When the law requires you to let an admitted homosexual teach your children and serve as a role model for them, it’s time to stop being so tolerant.” She even blamed gay people for the weather. “Do you know why California has a drought? Because a Southern California city passed a gay rights ordinance. That’s God’s way of punishing civilizations that are tolerant of homosexuals.”

Bryant’s mean-spiritedness reportedly cost her a planned syndicated television series when producers backed away from the controversial singer. This gave her a chance to reveal her persecution complex. Declaring that “the blacklisting of Anita Bryant has begun,” she claimed that in losing that job, “it destroys the dream that I have had since I was a child.” Gay rights leader and local businessman Bob Kunst relished the irony. “She wants to cause gays to lose their jobs and she complains because she has lost a job. The lady is a hypocrite.”

Days before the vote was to take place, Florida Gov. Ruben Askew was asked about the Miami campaign at a news conference. “If I were in Miami,” he responded, “I would have no difficulty in voting to repeal that ordinance.” He also said that he had no known gay people on his staff, and he wouldn’t hire any. Askew had been seen as being among a new breed of open-minded Southern Democrats, and his name was often mentioned as a potential Presidential contender.

The final vote wasn’t even close. When the special election came around, the final tally was 202,319 to just 89,562. Dade County voted overwhelmingly to jump onto Anita Bryant’s bandwagon. Bryant responded, “The laws of God and the cultural values of man have been vindicated,” and she announced that she would take her campaign to other cities across America.

Today Agenda Is Brought To You By…

From Arizona Gay News (Tucson, AZ), May 5, 1977, page 4.

The Arizona Daily News described the Back Pocket two years after it opened:

BACK POCKET – 2921 N 1st Ave. Tucson. On March 15, 1976, during one of the freak snow storms in Tucson, the Back Pocket opened its doors. Formerly an open sky patio extension of the Stonewall called Stoneynook, it took shape as a quiet, intimate place away from the disco in the Stonewall.

All work on the building from electrical to carpentry was done completely by gay people. Featuring split level seating, natural surroundings and lighting, fireplace and atrium all add up to make a very pleasant and relaxing atmosphere. BACK POCKET features fantastic steak dinner every Sunday for a very nominal cost, Spaghetti dinners every Thursday for under a buck and group activities which include volley ball on Sunday afternoons during the spring and summer in the parking lot. All this shows a true effort on the part of owners John Morgan and Tom Seward to give another dimension to the Tucson Gay Community.

[Source: “Out & About.” Arizona Gay News (February 4, 1977): 3.

Emphasis Mine

Editor, the Citizen:

Re: The murder of Richard Heakin by four teen-agers.

“I was not surprised to hear the decision of the honorable Ben Birdsall to try those poor youths as juveniles, thereby insuring the proverbial slap-on-the-wrist penalty for their dastardly deed.

My only question is: Would this decision have been the same if the young man so cruelly beaten to death had been the son of a judge, or the mayor, or some other fine, upstanding citizen? After all, what does one less “queer” mean to the society in which we live?

And, of course, those well-behaved young boys certainly meant no harm, did they? … I know that when my sone was that age, he certainly wasn’t hanging around outside any bar looking for hassles — or anything else.

This decision of the honorable judge will serve as notice to all other thrill-seeking young boys that if they maintain a decent school average, et., they are free to go out and murder anyone they wish and they can rest that no “murder one” wrap will ever hang over their fair heads.

Ah, Justice

G.L. Ryan

[Source: Letters to the editor, Tucson Daily Citizen (Aug 2, 1976): 18.]

Today In History, 1976: Richard J Heakin Murdered

Richard J. Heakin, Jr.

40 YEARS AGO: You could only cruise Tucson’s Speedway Blvd on a hot summer night for so long before boredom sets in. But if a carload of bored teens turned north onto Euclid and kept going past where Euclid merges onto First, and then kept going another six blocks past Grant, they could relive their boredom by harassing the faggots going in and out of the Stonewall Tavern. That’s why in the very early morning hours of June 6, thirteen of those high school teens were prowling Stonewall’s dirt parking lot, looking to liven things up.

Richard J. Heakin, Jr., a 21 year old microfilm technician from Lincoln, Nebraska, was in Tucson for a week, visiting friends. He had been out to everyone he knew, and was active with gay organizations in Nebraska. His family welcomed his partner into their home. Heakin had saved enough money to buy a new car, and he drove it to Tucson. As the week came to a close, his friends suggested they go to the Stonewall for one last night out before he began his trip back home the next day.

But by 12:30 a.m., things inside the tavern were getting tense. As patrons tried to leave, they were harassed and accosted by a menacing gang of high school students roming the parking lot that surrounded the bar. When one patron tried to leave, a student tripped him, called him a faggot and took a swing at him. The swing missed, and the patron went back into the bar to call the police.

Before police responded, Heakin and six of his friends decided it was time to leave. They stepped outside, and four of the youths approach them. “Somebody yelled run,” one of Heakin’s friends told a reporter, “but he (Heakin) held back. He didn’t expect it.” Charles J. Shemwell, 17 and a varsity football player, delivered two karate-like kicks and a solid punch to Heakin’s neck. Heakin, five foot eight and all of 136 pounds, fell back against a car and was immediately out cold. The county medical examiner would later testify that the single blow to his neck caused extensive hemorrhaging. Heakin’s friends rushed to his side to find him breathing laboriously. Someone called an ambulance, and Heakin was rushed to the University hospital where he died 45 minutes later of brain injuries.

A few hours later, police tracked down the four assailants. Arrested at their homes were Shemwell, Herman J. Overpeck, 15 and a freshman football player and wrestler, Scott McDonald, 16 and a football player, and Russell Van Cleve, 16.

The local gay community, which had not been big on organizing until now, circulated a petition demanding justice. Al DeLabio, pastor of the Metropolitan Community Church said, “We’ve had four or five murders in this city that I’ve heard of, and they’ve been swept under the rug.” Stonewall Tavern owner John Morgan said harassment of customers at his bar and at the other three gay bars and bathhouse in town “ranges from vandalism to egg-throwing to beating, and, obviously, murder.” Several others complained of ongoing police harassment, a charge that Police Chief William J. Gilkinson denied. “In some jurisdictions,” he said, “police have paid too much attention to homosexual bars… It is my opinion that any citizen has a right to conduct himself in any particular lifestyle he enjoys.” But Morgan countered, “The police just don’t have an accurate picture of crime in this area… If a guy was beaten up in the parking lot of the Stonewall, and he happens to be a teacher, his is not going to go to the police because he’d be out of work in two days.”

The Pima County Attorney’s Office quickly announced that they would seek to try the four teens as adults for first-degree murder. But before the four could stand trial as adults, a state Superior Court judge would have to certify that they “were not amenable to treatment or rehabilitation as delinquent children … and the safety or interest of the public requires that the children be transferred for criminal prosecution.”

Judge Ben. C. Birdsall began hearing testimony from witnesses on June 29. On July 1, he released the four youths from Juvenile Court custody. On July 9, he reduced the charges to involuntary manslaughter, after ruling that there was “no evidence” of premeditation (for first degree murder) or malice (for second-degree murder). During the hearing to determine whether the four would stand trial as adults, he heard a long parade of witnesses describing the defendants — and especially Shemwell — as model students from good families. Prosecutor James Himelic got tired of the five hours of the parade of witnesses singing the students’ praises. At one point he objected to the introduction of Shemwell’s trophies and 4-H ribbons as evidence, saying they were irrelevant. Judge Birdsall overruled his objection.

On July 23, Birdsall ruled that Shemwell would stand trial, but only as a juvenile. Birdsall justified that it was “the first and only unlawful act of violence Shemwell has engaged in. I don’t believe anything like that will happen again.” With Shemwell being the only one of the three who witnesses identified as physically assaulting Heakin, it wasn’t surprising that over the next few days, Birdsall ruled that the other three also would not face trial as adults.

Birdsall found the four delinquent in the manslaughter charge. All four remained in their parents custody until sentencing. The options available ranged from probation to detention in the Juvenile Center until they turned 21. On October 21, Burdsall selected the most lenient sentence possible: probation.

But in case anyone should think they got off scott-free for killing a man, Birdsall let it be known that there would be conditions for their probation: No more cruising, a 10 p.m. curfew (unless their parents decided otherwise), and mandatory summer jobs. “This is not a slap on the wrist,” Birdsell said, after delicately slapping their wrists.

Members of the recently-formed Tucson Gay Coalition were outraged. At a press conference, Cathy M Hemler said Judge Birdsall’s sentences were “not even a slap on the wrist.” In a statement, the group said, “We and many other gay people in this community have withheld our judgment until our criminal court system acted upon the law. We didn’t have much faith, but we had hoped that gays could expect justice from this society’s institutions.” Gordon Wilson said that Birdsall’s decision meant that killing gay people wasn’t really a serious crime. The Tucson Daily Citizen opined that “the disturbing pattern set by Birdsall ever since he assumed the case” represented a “tragic Tucson example of lost justice.” Tucson’s citizenry seemed to agree, as letters to the editor flooded in to the two daily newspapers. One letter writer said that the sentence wasn’t so much a slap on the wrist as it was a pat on the back.

The Richard J. Heakin, Jr. Memorial in Sunset Park.

Community outrage over Birdsall’s decisions prompted several important changes in the city of Tucson. The Tucson police department established a Community Liaison-Safety patrol to check Tucson’s gay bars and parking lots. On February 4, 1977, Tucson joined the first wave of cities to pass an anti-discrimination ordinance based on sexual orientation. On June 26, 1977, Tucson held its first Gay Pride Picnic/Heakin Memorial in Himmel Park. In 2002, community activists placed a memorial to Richard J. Heakin, Jr., in Sunset Park in front of City Hall, commemorating “a tragedy that has transformed us and our history into a triumph of community spirit.”

[Sources: Edward Bassett. “4 teen-agers held: Man beaten to death at North Side bar.” Tucson Daily Citizen (Jun 7, 1976): 1, 2.

“Adult trials asked for teen-agers in tavern beating death.” Tucson Daily Citizen (Jun 8, 1976): 1.

San Negri. “Gays charge harassment.” Tucson Daily Citizen (Jun 15, 1976): 21.

“Youth testifies victim kicked twice: Killing ended trip to ‘hassle queers’.” Tucson Daily Citizen (Jun 30, 1976): 5.

Cheryle Rodriguez. “Bar death suspects home after 24 days.” Tucson Daily Citizen (Jul 2, 1976): 29.

Cheryle Rodriguez. “Bar death charges might be reduced.” Tucson Daily Citizen (Jul 8, 1976): 25.

“Judge reduces charges in bar-beating death.” Tucson Daily Citizen (Jul 10, 1976): 11.

“Beating death hearing begins: Teen admits kicking Heakin.” Tucson Daily Citizen (Jul 22, 1976): 25.

“Youth to face slaying trial as a juvenile.” Tucson Daily Citizen (Jul 23, 1976): 31.

“Three slaying suspects face trial as a juvenile.” Tucson Daily Citizen (Jul 24, 1976): 2.

“3 youths face jail in attack.” Tucson Daily Citizen (Sep 6, 1976): 46.

“Teens get probation in killing at tavern.” Tucson Daily Citizen (Oct 21, 1976): 1.

“Gays criticize sentence.” Tucson Daily Citizen (Oct 23, 1976): 4.

Editorial: “A tragic Tucson example of lost justice.” Tucson Daily Citizen (Oct 23, 1976): 36.]

Born On This Day, 1875: Thomas Mann

(d. 1955) The German author, social critic and 1929 Nobel Prize winner mined the rich material of his own life and family for many of his novels, including the Buddenbrooks, The Magic Mountain, and A Death in Venice, the latter of which is credited with introducing homosexual themes in the general culture. Mann married in 1905 and had six children, but when his diaries were unsealed in 1975, they revealed his struggles with his sexuality.

Mann’s political views began on the conservative end of the spectrum, with his support for the authoritarian policies of Kaiser Wilhelm II. But after the Great War, he became increasingly liberal, and his staunch support of democratic principles led naturally to his strident denunciations of Nazi policies. The Manns were vacationing in Switzerland when Hitler came to power in 1933 and they never returned home. Mann soon resettled in Southern California and recorded several anti-Nazi speeches which were broadcast into Germany during World War II by the BBC. After the war, he returned to Switzerland, where he died in 1955 of atherosclerosis.

Born On This Day, 1952: Harvey Fierstein

His acting debut was in 1971, when he appeared in Andy Warhol’s only play Pork. He’s most famous as the actor and playwright of the Tony Award-winning Torch Song Trilogy (1982), the story of a drag-performer’s search for true love and family. His book for La Cage aux Folles (1983) garnered him another Tony Award. He won another Tony, this time for Best Lead Actor in a Musical, for his role as Edna Turnblad in the Broadway version of John Water’s Hairspray (2002). Film credits include the film version of Torch Song Trilogy and Woody Allen’s Bullets over Broadway, and as Mrs. Doubtfire‘s makeup artist brother. He also lent his distinctive gravelly voice to a number of cartoons, including a 1999 HBO special based on his children’s book The Sissy Duckling, and guest appearances in The Simpsons and Family Guy. In 2012, he wrote the book for the stage version of Kinky Boots. His latest play, Casa Valentina opened on Broadway in 2014, and was nominated for four Tonys, including Best Play. Despite critical acclaim, the play closed after two months.

Today’s Agenda Is Brought To You By…

From The Calendar (San Antonio, TX), May 9, 1986, page 6.

According to his obituary in The Calendar, Ted Langley was the first San Antonian to publicly acknowledge his diagnosis when he wrote about it in the local afternoon daily San Antonio Light in 1985. “He never lost his courage to face life,” his obituary read. “His courage forced the rest of us to face him and the disease which is our nightmare. By refusing to hide from his friends and his community, Ted made AIDS real. He represented the scores of Persons With AIDS and Persons with AIDS Related Complex in our community who are out of sight and out of mind.”

Emphasis Mine

The following is excerpted from a letter written by Frank Kameny (May 21), on behalf of the East Coast Homophile Organizations (ECHO), to the national board of the Daughters of Bilitis, which was threatening to leave ECHO over the issue of picketing:

As you know by now, our picketing of White House on May 29 was one of the most successful and important ventures our movement has undertaken.

We had nationwide — and worldwide — publicity — in every favorable sense. It was shown on TV in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Miami, Indiana, Texas, Seattle, that we know of so far. … The picketing was sell and properly done. The 10 men and 3 women participating were well-groomed, and well-dressed — suits, white shirts, and ties, for men; dresses for women were mandatory. We were told that ours was an impressive-looking picket line indeed. … The entire enterprise was carried out with order and with dignity.

In view of all of us, the adoption of picketing, on a regular basis, and properly done, is one of the most important advances in the homophile movement in recent years. In every good sense these demonstrations are gaining us attention and respect. …

At the ECHO delegates meeting in New York on Saturday, June 5, we were informed that such demonstrations are considered to be against the policies of DOB, and that if ECHO supported them, DOB would have to leave ECHO.

In addition, we were informed that DOB would picket only when the action was backed by the larger community.

First, this is arrant nonsense! When one has reached the stage where picketing is backed by the larger community, such picketing is no longer necessary. The entire force and thrust of picketing is a protest on issues not yet supported or backed by the larger community, in order to bring issues to the fore, and to help elicit that support.

Second, this is in keeping with a mentality which has pervaded this movement from its beginning — homosexuals must never do anything for themselves; they must never come out into the open. They must work through and behind others. They must never present their own case — let others do so for them. We have outgrown this “closet-queen” type of approach, and it is well that we have.

[Source: Michael G. Long (ed.) Gay Is Good: The Life and Letters of Gay Rights Pioneer Franklin Kameny (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2014): 96-98]

Today In History, 1965: ECHO’s Endorsement of Picketing Threatens To Split the Gay Rights Movement

In 1963, representatives of the Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C., the Mattachine Society of New York, the New York chapter of Daughters of Bilitis, and Philadelphia’s Janus Society came together to launch the East Coast Homophile Organizations (ECHO), to foster better communication and cooperation between the groups. In addition to its annual conferences, ECHO delegates met once a month to plan the annual conference and to exchange ideas and discuss general problems and come to agreements on plans of action.

Beginning in late 1964 and continuing onto 1965, members of the ECHO coalition’s organizations were pioneering a new era of gay rights activism with the start of some of the first pickets of the gay rights movement (Sep 19, Apr 17, Apr 18, May 29). On June 5, the majority of the delegates at June 5 ECHO meeting voted in favor of a resolution endorsing the practice of picketing for civil liberties.

The move was exceptionally controversial, especially to to the national leadership of the Daughters of Bilitis. DoB members Barbara Gittings (Jul 31), Kay Lahusen (Jan 5) and soon-to-be DoB President Shirley Willer (Sep 26) were very enthusiastic about engaging in direct action. But Willer and Meredith Grey knew the move would be contentious and sought input from the DoB national board. The board reminded Grey and Willer that picketing was a violation of DoB policy. Grey and Willer placed another resolution before the ECHO delegates pledging that ECHO would not adopt policies that were contrary to those of member organizations within ECHO.

That resolution failed, and the DoB board decided to cut its ties with ECHO. “At this particular point we do not have confidence in the leadership as demonstrated by the Eastern Mattachine groups, who, under present circumstances, would be able to override DoB in any and all cases,” the board stated. “And what DoB’s participation would amount to is tacit support of the Mattachine program. We would prefer to hold DoB’s identity as a separate organization intact and cooperate with the Eastern Mattachine groups in so far as we are able.” By then, the issue of picketing became just one of many issues dividing DoB from ECHO. As a women’s organization vigilant to preserve its place in the male-dominated homophile movement, many DoB activists were determined to protect women’s interests from the mens’ tendency to dominate discussions and decision-making. While the issue of picketing was the immediate impetus of the split, it was just one more grievance among a larger constellation.

But that grievance wasn’t a trivial one. DoB cofounders Del Martin (May 5) and Phyllis Lyon (Nov 10) didn’t reject direction action outright, but objected to what they saw as a lack of planning and preparation in case of arrests. “Timing and strategy are of the utmost importance in direct action projects — as is proper training in techniques of non-violence.” They felt the DoB leadership wasn’t ready to make such an important decision. Other DoB leaders rejected direct action entirely. One said, “only dirty, unwashed rabble do that.” Del Shearer, DoB’s vice president objected strongly with picketing “at this time or in the very near future” since the homophile groups had not yet had much impact on “the reflection of custom and public policy” of the general public.

ECHO decided to move ahead with two more planned pickets, in Philadelphia (Jul 4) and at the Pentagon (Jul 31). ECHO also approved another resolution imploring DoB to remain affiliated with ECHO, and tasked Frank Kameny (May 21) with conveying ECHO’s sentiments to the DoB board. His June 8 letter to DoB leadership, in typical Kameny fashion, was not particularly tactful:

I realize that you are very conservative in outlook. …I do not ask or expect that you will be the leaders, taking an avant-garde position or that you will re-do and remake yourselves over in the image of other groups. But can you not even allow the ECHO affiliation, WITH YOU AS A MEMBER, to sponsor a demonstration.

The homophile movement is becoming increasingly activist. “Uncle Tomism” in our movement is on its way toward becoming as discredited as it is in the Negro movement. Surely you can find a compromise position which will not rule you out of the most important activities…

With the kindest of feelings toward you, I will say that if you do not keep up with the movement, I predict that DOB will go “down the drain” as a meaningful organization — not be over act of anyone else in the movement, but because that’s just the way movements evolve.

…In summary, on this point, I will say, simply, that if you withdraw from ECHO at this time, you will be removing yourselves from participation in some of the most important activities ever to affect the American homosexual, and the loss will be primarily DOB’s — and permanently so.

[Sources: Marcia M. Gallo. Different Daughters: A History of the Daughters of Bilitis and the Rise of the Lesbian Rights (New York: Carrol & Graf Publishers, 2006): 114-117.

Michael G. Long (ed.) Gay Is Good: The Life and Letters of Gay Rights Pioneer Franklin Kameny (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2014): 96-99, 106.]

Today In History, 1981: “Pneumocystis Pneumonia — Los Angeles”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published this notice in the June 5, 1981 edition of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The CDC was skittish about how to handle the report, knowing that if it’s gay angle was too provocative or prominent, it might bring about adverse political consequences. The CDC’s concerns about a rising political backlash against the gay community would soon be confirmed when the religious right seized found the new disease to be a handy cudgel. And so this report, the first clinical description of a new disease which we would later know as AIDS, appeared tucked inside on page two, with all references to homosexuality dropped from its title:

Pneumocystis Pneumonia — Los Angeles
In the period October 1980-May 1981, 5 young men, all active homosexuals, were treated for biopsy-confirmed Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia at 3 different hospitals in Los Angeles, California. Two of the patients died. All 5 patients had laboratory-confirmed previous or current cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection and candidal mucosal infection. Case reports of these patients follow.

Patient 1: A previously healthy 33-year-old man developed P. carinii pneumonia and oral mucosal candidiasis in March 1981 after a 2-month history of fever associated with elevated liver enzymes, leukopenia, and CMV viruria. The serum complement-fixation CMV titer in October 1980 was 256; in may 1981 it was 32.* The patient’s condition deteriorated despite courses of treatment with trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (TMP/SMX), pentamidine, and acyclovir. He died May 3, and postmortem examination showed residual P. carinii and CMV pneumonia, but no evidence of neoplasia.

Patient 2: A previously healthy 30-year-old man developed p. carinii pneumonia in April 1981 after a 5-month history of fever each day and of elevated liver-function tests, CMV viruria, and documented seroconversion to CMV, i.e., an acute-phase titer of 16 and a convalescent-phase titer of 28* in anticomplement immunofluorescence tests. Other features of his illness included leukopenia and mucosal candidiasis. His pneumonia responded to a course of intravenous TMP/.SMX, but, as of the latest reports, he continues to have a fever each day.

Patient 3: A 30-year-old man was well until January 1981 when he developed esophageal and oral candidiasis that responded to Amphotericin B treatment. He was hospitalized in February 1981 for P. carinii pneumonia that responded to TMP/SMX. His esophageal candidiasis recurred after the pneumonia was diagnosed, and he was again given Amphotericin B. The CMV complement-fixation titer in March 1981 was 8. Material from an esophageal biopsy was positive for CMV.

Patient 4: A 29-year-old man developed P. carinii pneumonia in February 1981. He had had Hodgkins disease 3 years earlier, but had been successfully treated with radiation therapy alone. He did not improve after being given intravenous TMP/SMX and corticosteroids and died in March. Postmortem examination showed no evidence of Hodgkins disease, but P. carinii and CMV were found in lung tissue.

Patient 5: A previously healthy 36-year-old man with clinically diagnosed CMV infection in September 1980 was seen in April 1981 because of a 4-month history of fever, dyspnea, and cough. On admission he was found to have P. carinii pneumonia, oral candidiasis, and CMV retinitis. A complement-fixation CMV titer in April 1981 was 128. The patient has been treated with 2 short courses of TMP/SMX that have been limited because of a sulfa-induced neutropenia. He is being treated for candidiasis with topical nystatin.

The diagnosis of Pneumocystis pneumonia was confirmed for all 5 patients antemortem by closed or open lung biopsy. The patients did not know each other and had no known common contacts or knowledge of sexual partners who had had similar illnesses. Two of the 5 reported having frequent homosexual contacts with various partners. All 5 reported using inhalant drugs, and 1 reported parenteral drug abuse. Three patients had profoundly depressed in vitro proliferative responses to mitogens and antigens. Lymphocyte studies were not performed on the other 2 patients.

Reported by MS Gottlieb, MD, HM Schanker, MD, PT Fan, MD, A Saxon, MD, JD Weisman, DO, Div of Clinical Immunology-Allergy; Dept of Medicine, UCLA School of Medicine; I Pozalski, MD, Cedars-Mt. Siani Hospital, Los Angeles; Field services Div, Epidemiology Program Office, CDC.

Editorial Note: Pneumocystis pneumonia in the United States is almost exclusively limited to severely immunosuppressed patients (1). The occurrence of pneumocystosis in these 5 previously healthy individuals without a clinically apparent underlying immunodeficiency is unusual. The fact that these patients were all homosexuals suggests an association between some aspect of a homosexual lifestyle or disease acquired through sexual contact and Pneumocystis pneumonia in this population. All 5 patients described in this report had laboratory-confirmed CMV disease or virus shedding within 5 months of the diagnosis of Pneumocystis pneumonia. CMV infection has been shown to induce transient abnormalities of in vitro cellular-immune function in otherwise healthy human hosts (2,3). Although all 3 patients tested had abnormal cellular-immune function, no definitive conclusion regarding the role of CMV infection in these 5 cases can be reached because of the lack of published data on cellular-immune function in healthy homosexual males with and without CMV antibody. In 1 report, 7 (3.6%) of 194 patients with pneumocystosis also had CMV infection’ 40 (21%) of the same group had at least 1 other major concurrent infection (1). A high prevalence of CMV infections among homosexual males was recently reported: 179 (94%) had CMV viruria; rates for 101 controls of similar age who were reported to be exclusively heterosexual were 54% for seropositivity and zero fro viruria (4). In another study of 64 males, 4 (6.3%) had positive tests for CMV in semen, but none had CMV recovered from urine. Two of the 4 reported recent homosexual contacts. These findings suggest not only that virus shedding may be more readily detected in seminal fluid than urine, but also that seminal fluid may be an important vehicle of CMV transmission (5).

All the above observations suggest the possibility of a cellular-immune dysfunction related to a common exposure that predisposes individuals to opportunistic infections such as pneumocystosis and candidiasis. Although the role of CMV infection in the pathogenesis of pneumocystosis remains unknown, the possibility of P. carinii infection must be carefully considered in a differential diagnosis for previously healthy homosexual males with dyspnea and pneumonia.

References

1. Walzer PD, Perl DP, Krogstad DJ, Rawson G, Schultz MG. Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia in the United States. Epidemiologic, diagnostic, and clinical features. Ann Intern Med 1974;80:83-93.
2. Rinaldo CR, Jr, Black PH, Hirsh MS. Interaction of cytomegalovirus with leukocytes from patients with mononucleosis due to cytomegalovirus. J Infect Dis 1977;136:667-78.
3. Rinaldo CR, Jr, Carney WP, Richter BS, Black PH, Hirsh MS. Mechanisms of immunosuppression in cytomegaloviral mononucleosis. J Infect Dis 1980;141:488-95.
4. Drew WL, Mintz L, Miner RC, Sands M, Ketterer B. Prevalence of cytomegalovirus infection in homosexual men. J Infect Dis 1981;143:188-92.
5. Lang DJ, Kummer JF. Cytomegalovirus in semen: observations in selected populations,. J Infect Dis 1975; 132:472-3.

The MMWR went out to thousands of doctors across the country, and to dozens of science and health reporters at the major newspapers. The Los Angeles Times quickly reported on the local story of five gay men who had died in L.A. hospitals, and speculated that the unusual pneumonia was somehow “related to gay life style.” The San Francisco Chronicle’s David Perlman did some digging and determined that the “mysterious outbreak of a sometimes fatal pneumonia” was also occurring in San Francisco and New York. So far, the new disease had only one name: Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, or PCP, but it would quickly become apparent that PCP would be merely a symptom of a much more serious underlying immune deficiency.

A month later, the CDC, in another issue of MMWR, would add more information about additional PCP cases, and add an unusual skin cancer, Kaposi’s sarcoma, as another condition that gay men were dying of (see Jul 3). That report spawned talk of a “gay cancer,” which many in the gay community took to be a separate disease from PCP. The new underlying disease wouldn’t get a semi-official name for almost another year, when it was mistakenly called GIRD, or Gay-Related Immune Deficiency, despite the fact that others who weren’t gay were also coming down with the illness: Haitians, Africans, hemophiliac, intravenous drug users. It wasn’t until mid-1982 when the CDC, which had refused to use GRID to describe the illness, coined the designation of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, or AIDS.

Today In History, 1989: Republicans Conduct Whisper Campaign Against Democratic House Speaker

House Speaker Tom Foley (D-WA)

Just as Rep. Tom Foley (D-WA) was about to take the gavel from recently-disgraced former Speaker Jim Wright (D-TX), the Republican National Committee’s communications director Mark Goodin began circulating a memo among state party chairmen and GOP Congressmen titled, “Tom Foley: Out of the Liberal Closet.” The memo compared Foley’s voting record with that of Rep. Barney Frank’s (D-MA), who had come out of the gay closet only two years earlier (May 29). GOP Chairman Lee Atwater, who had made his reputation smearing other reputations left and right, stood by Goodin’s memo, calling it “no big deal” and “factually accurate,” and professed astonishment that anyone could interpret the memo as a slur. The memo didn’t come right out and accuse Foley of being gay (labeling someone as gay in 1989 would have been taken as an accusation rather than a mere description), but the subtext was unmistakable. And while Atwater was protesting the memo’s innocence, other Republicans cheered the memo and sought more personal assaults on Democratic leaders.

GOP Chairman Lee Atwater

Republican minority Whip Newt Gingrich (R-GA) even spent several days calling dozens of reporters trying to get the rumor into print. One of those reporters, Lars-Erik Nelson of the New York Daily News, finally ran with it on June 5 after one of Gingrich’s top aides called him saying The Washington Post was going to run the story. “We hear it’s little boys,” Nelson was told. The Post confirmed that they had been contacted but refused to run it. When Rep. Frank learned of the memo, he blasted GOP leaders for circulating it and threatened to expose closeted House Republicans, of which there were a few.

Other Republicans quickly began disassociating themselves from the memo, including President George Bush, whose White House Chief John Sununu told reporters that both he and Bush had reprimanded Atwater. “The President was very upset,” Sununu said. “I was upset. It went too far. It was wrong. The innuendo was wrong. It’s wrong not because it damages our relationship with the Democrats. It’s wrong because it’s wrong. It’s a terrible thing to happen at this time. It was not appropriate or fair.” Sen. Bob Dole (R-KS) called the memorandum “garbage” and House Minority Leader Robert Michel (R-IL) also denounced it.

Goodin took the fall, resigning on the same day that Bush rebuked Atwater. Atwater also tried to remove his fingerprints. “I think it was bad taste and bad judgment,” Atwater said. “I told Mark that. I play hardball politics, but I don’t cross the line. This memo crossed the line.” With Goodin’s departure, Bush stood behind the GOP chairman. “Lee Atwater is doing a great job,” he said during a meeting with state party chairmen a week later. Dole quickly fell in line: “The president has spoken and Lee Atwater is staying.”

Atwater didn’t stay GOP chairman for long. The following year, he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer, and died a year later in 1991. During that interval, he converted to Catholicism and personally apologized to many of the politicians who he had personally attacked over the years. One of those receiving an apology was Tom Turnipseed, who Atwater mercilessly attacked during a 1980 Congressional campaign in South Carolina. Atwatter planted a story that Turnipseed “has had psychotic treatment.” When Turnipseed’s campaign demanded an apology, Atwater said he wouldn’t respond to someone who had “got hooked up to jumper cables.” A decade later as Atwater was confronting his own mortality, he wrote to Turnipseed. “It is very important to me that I let you know that out of everything that has happened in my career, one of the low points remains the so-called ‘jumper cable’ episode,” he wrote. “My illness has taught me something about the nature of humanity, love, brotherhood and relationships that I never understood, and probably never would have. So, from that standpoint, there is some truth and good in everything.” It’s not clear whether anyone who Atwater gay-baited also received an apology.